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This is one of three quilt tops I finished over the holidays. While Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts titled this pattern Ugly Christmas Sweaters, I just cannot find anything ugly about them.

I raided my Kona Cotton Solids stash and made a few changes to the color placement from the original pattern, but I love this quilt! You could add a wider border, but I like that the focus is on the sweater designs. I have chosen red binding to give it a little “pop”.

Lorna’s current quilt-along is Have a Jolly Little Christmas. Click the link below to find out more about this very sweet holiday quilt. I would love to join the quilt-along, but have already committed myself to several projects this year.

These are the blocks I stitched for the quilt along hosted by Lorna McMahon of Sew Fresh Quilts. Lorna’s pattern is wonderful and honestly, I don’t think the sweaters are ugly. I love that she used solids for the sweaters and was able to raid my Kona Cottons stash to make most of the sweaters. I finished the first 15 blocks before running out of Peapod (green) and Papaya (orange) and need to order a half-yard of each to finish the quilt top.

I followed the pattern cover design pretty closely except for changing some of the collar colors. I also pulled out my From Marti Michell templates and used them to cut the pieces for the 6″ sweater centers, the half-triangles of background fabric for the shoulder area, and to trim the sleeve connector pieces. They made stitching the diagonal seams quick and easy, plus there was no need to trim afterwards.

Last December I made a schedule for finishing this quilt. The plan was to make a block or side section per week and have the quilt top finished by the end of May. Well, I was doing pretty well until it was time to make the alternate Lantern block. I just didn’t feel like working on that block that particular week and instead of skipping it, I kept putting it off. Well a couple of months later, and I still haven’t finished the lantern, although the books in that block are finished. It also derailed me from my schedule, as I felt like I couldn’t move forward until the lantern was pieced. Sounds pretty dumb, but I’m sure some of you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The above photo is of the main bookcase to date, and you can see that I have 7 full blocks, and 3 partial blocks to piece and a lot of hand embroidery to do. That wouldn’t seem like very much, but there is also Dobbie, the Gryffindor sword, Firebolt, Horntail dragon, Port Key boot, flying keys, bookcase feet, and an enlarged Nagini to make. All of these are around 10″ x 20″. I’m sure my mistake has been letting my son and daughter see the blocks and the quilt progress, because they keep telling me that it needs ‘this or that’ added to the design. Since it is my sons’ quilt, I can’t really tell him no. I mean, I could tell him no, but since he has been waiting on this quilt since 2011, he can easily play the guilt card. He recently told me that Luna is his favorite character, so I’m adding the Quibbler and her Spectrespecs. Please don’t let him ask for her Lion Hat!

Harry Potter PoD progress February 2015 5 x 6 block layout

quilt progress 5/19/2016, 1 of 4

quilt progress 5/19/2016, 2 of 4

quilt progress 5/19/2016, 3 of 4

quilt progress 5/19/2016, 4 of 4

drawing effect

The drawing effect was a setting on my camera. Quite interesting what patterns the camera picked out.

I’ve updated the PoD gallery and you can see all of the blocks here (PoD gallery). Some of the ‘books only’ blocks have been taken apart and reconstructed or parts used in other blocks, because I’ve pulled those from my original layout and didn’t want to waste anything.

Open Book, week 25

week 25 with Howler

Book with Broomstick, week 16

Venomous Tentacula, alternate week 7

Sorting Hat original, week 21

Crookshanks, embroidered, alternate week 21

A few of the original blocks and the reconstructed blocks.

Acromantula, alternate week 26

Half-Moon Spectacles, alternate week 27

Golden Snitch, week 9

Butterbeer, alternate week 12

Bluebell Flame in Jam Jar, alternate week 20

Hand of Glory, embroidered, alternate week 4

Potions Bottles, alternate week 30

A few recent blocks.

If you’ve been following my blog, then you’re probably wondering where I’ve been for the last three months. Well, besides getting side tracked by the Lantern block, my Late Stage Lyme can out of remission and I decided to scale back my quilting projects and focus on what I needed to do for my health. My husband had been suggesting that I go to a yoga class and see it that would help my pain. After putting him off for several months, because let’s be honest, I don’t look like the yogis on the internet, and any exercise made my pain and fatigue worse, I finally went to a class. After coming home and taking what I call a ‘yoga nap’ I felt a vast improvement in my mobility and pain the next day. Yoga may not be for everyone, but it helped me tremendously and I’m well into my second month of classes. I attend almost every day, thanks to a supportive husband who told me he didn’t care how often I went as long as I feel better.

Attending classes gets me out of the house, which has helped me feel better emotionally, but I also don’t have a problem getting in and out of cars and can use the stairs to get to my sewing studio. And in the quilting world, it’s all about spending time with fabric.